Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to hold a summit this week with US President Joe Biden, in the first official visit by a Japanese leader in nine years.
Purpose of the meeting according to the Athens News Agency. is to highlight close security and economic ties, with the two leaders expected to discuss cooperation on defense equipment and the possible upgrade of the US military command structure in Japan.
“The de facto defense alliance is already there and we know about the US military potential that is in Japan – by the way, near our border,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“This has always been an obstacle to trying to settle our main problem, the peace treaty problem.”
Russia, the key successor state to the Soviet Union, and Japan have never formally signed a peace treaty ending World War II hostilities.
The territorial dispute over a chain of disputed islands in the Pacific, known in Russia as the Kuril Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories, is a central issue.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in January that Japan would have to abandon its territorial ambitions for the islands if a peace treaty is to be concluded.
Moscow pulled out of peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic plans related to the islands in 2022 due to Japanese sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Since then, the tension in their relations has further escalated.
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